Is eBay Moving Toward a Free Listing Model?

eBay UK executives told attendees at a conference on Monday to expect more pricing discounts, and announced it was moving towards a free listing model, according to Chris Dawson who was blogging the event. When asked about the statements, eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman told AuctionBytes he could not comment on what was said at the UK Catalyst Conference, but said President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations Lorrie Norrington might address it in her keynote session at this week's Spring E-Commerce Summit (http://www.tamebay.com/2008/04/newsflash-ebay-moving-to-free-insertion-fees.html).

Meanwhile eBay is feeling the heat from Wall Street due to its lack of growth in listing numbers. A report from Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank Monday stated that listings were up 9 percent year-over-year in the third week of eBay's second quarter. (Reuters blamed a drop in eBay's stock price on the report, particularly the statement that eBay UK listings had declined 19 percent year-over year.) The report also pointed to a decline in US page views (down 17 percent year-over-year), comparing it to Amazon's 16 percent increase in page views.

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.

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